The Shift to EMV Payment

It seems like everyone is running to the EMV (also known as Europay) payment method for credit card payment. Most parking payment terminals (exit credit card verifiers, pay-on-foot machines, and fee computers [POS]) are leaving the factories ready for this newer payment method type.

How much liability does this really save the merchant of record at any particular parking operation over magnetic stripe readers? The cost for the new technology is high. There are costs for the new hardware as well as new fee structures to negotiate, not to mention the slowness of the transactions. Newer management systems aren’t storing raw credit card data anymore. Even if they have a data breach, there’s no protection offered to stored data (in the management system) by the use of EMV readers.

Are the costs of EMV worth it in the end if you are really only protecting yourself from chargebacks? They could be depending on the size of the operation you are trying to keep compliant. Instituting EMV readers can drastically reduce the amount of effort involved to keep your operation compliant. Everyone will need to look at their own operation to determine if EMV makes sense now.